


the lost and found

by lavyenrose



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Beware There Are Season 3 Spoilers In Here, M/M, Suggestive Themes, also time jumps bc i don't believe in the natural flow of time, but only if you interpret them that way, reincarnation au (also sort of), the song of achilles au (sort of)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-08
Updated: 2017-08-08
Packaged: 2018-12-12 15:08:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11739588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lavyenrose/pseuds/lavyenrose
Summary: It’s as if they simply picked up where the story left off.





	the lost and found

They’re still the same, after thousands of years. The legend starts with Achilles and his beloved, and begins anew with Keith and Shiro. 

It’s as if they simply picked up where the story left off- and kept picking it up again and again.

Because no matter what happens, they’ll choose each other at the end of the day. They’re each other’s beginning and each other’s ending. 

 

His name is Keith now and it’s not ichor running through his veins, but Galra blood. His kind isn’t worshipped but they still dictate; they’re not called gods but they could be. Quintessence granted some immortality, but not eternal love. Something went wrong along the way and Zarkon kept going, kept pushing beyond the boundaries.

His name is Shiro and he’s not broken, just pushed beyond his boundaries. He’s not fully human in this chapter, but still mortal (painfully so). Still not exactly a fighter, but he has to be. They swore they would be the first heroes to be happy (swear it again). Maybe not all heroes can be, but he chooses to smile, chooses peace before he has to lunge at another’s neck, and that is his strength. Maybe in another story he won’t have to fight, but this isn’t it. 

 

They’re in the middle of war again and Shiro traces constellations, connecting star to star on Keith’s skin. His body becomes a battle zone, purples and blues blooming from the rifles that were his lips. Keith bruises easily and he takes advantage of that, murmuring all is fair in love and war.

If it’s written in the stars that they were to separate, to die before they had the chance to grow old together, then they’ll rewrite it. 

They’ll find each other again, again, and again. 

 

(“How many times are you gonna have to save me before this is over?”)

(“As many times as it takes.”)

 

Shiro came back to him where he didn’t expect. Maybe it was all those desperate wishes on shooting stars that made Shiro crash-land just where he was heading. 

He’s a little different but he’s still Shiro, and Keith loves him all the same. 

_This._ The scar across his face.

 _This._ The shock of white hair.

_And this._ The cold, metal arm.

But the touch is still the same; he could recognise him by that alone. 

 

The second time Keith loses Shiro stings just as hard as the first. The others have moved on, and although he’s learned to rein in his rage, it still seeps at times. 

He’s lost, stuck between wanting to eat the world raw and just giving up. In the middle of two worlds, human and Galra, he doesn’t know himself. He’s the black paladin now, but it feels wrong. This is Shiro’s bayard, Shiro’s seat. 

Patroclus wore his beloved’s armor and see where that got him? History repeats itself, and Shiro is gone.

So Keith steps in the black lion, hoping that she won’t choose him. (Please, no.)

She comes to life, and Voltron pieces together without Shiro. 

 

(“What has Hector ever done to me?”)

This time, he will defeat Lotor before it’s too late.

 

After Hector slaughtered Patroclus, after Paris let loose his arrow, after Achilles moved onto the underworld leaving Patroclus to remember him; they are still bonded. 

Even in death they would know each other, because he is half of his soul. 

Perhaps Apollo pitied Achilles and the arrow was the key to unlock the door to Hades, where he should’ve met Patroclus. 

But Patroclus wasn’t there, and so Achilles wandered, searching until he folded himself at the mercy of the Lethe river. 

And then they’re reborn, the ghost of memories existing only in legend. 

 

He finds him in a Galra ship, eyes closed and accepting of death. His hair is strikingly long, his face lined with stubble and tiredness, and it sorely reminds Keith of how much time has passed. 

He’s a little different; he might not even be Shiro, but Keith loves him all the same. 

“Ryou.” They name him.

(I am made of memories. “Speak, then.”)

Ryou closes his eyes and remembers the glassy-eyed (Maybe-Not-)Shiro lying on the table, the pain of Galra hands, and the pain he inflicted. He allows Keith to touch him, but they won’t acknowledge the fact of what happened. Ryou remembers why Shiro fell in love the first time, and he feels like he’s falling again, but he’s not Shiro. 

Instead, Keith remembers for them. 

Two boys underneath the thick heat, still young and happy. They’re racing each other, both on their own hoverbike. Keith loses to him the first time, then the second, and then a hundred times before he finishes first. Shiro’s smile is as blinding as the sun itself, and brings an unnecessary warmth to Keith’s cheeks. 

There were long nights of even longer papers they should’ve started earlier, then short naps on the same bed, both refraining from snuggling against the other. The distance between them was short, but they did not close the distance.

He is glad that in this universe, people recognised the talent in Shiro. They did not question his ability, but respected him. In this universe, he is the golden one. He is the one in full colour when the world was grey, the one glimmering light in the dark. 

( _Philtatos_ , he called him in another time. Most beloved, best of men.) 

It’s strange how soft and nostalgic it makes Ryou, how he longs for things that never happened.

And Keith, he is nostalgic for things that could have happened.

He is in mourning for the youth lost to war, the time lost when they told each other they would steal from the Fates themselves, but he hasn’t given up hope. 

For every time they separate, they’ll reunite; two hearts beating, both whole, both each other’s.

**Author's Note:**

> sorry for the english i am an american


End file.
